almotamar.net - Yemen's Foreign Minister Dr Abubakr al-Qirbi has on Wednesday described the Guantanamo Bay prison as a mark of disgrace on humanity, in response to clarification from a Yemeni MP Sultan al-Atwani the minister has also expressed his astonishment over the MP's dependence on statements by American lawyers and officials at the American administration claiming that Yemen does not want to receive its 101 citizens still in prison in Guantanamo.
The Yemeni Foreign Minister has confirmed that Yemen was the first state to demand for its citizens and the first state that sent a security delegation to the United States of America to learn about identities of the prisoners. The Foreign Minister said the Yemeni government will deal with the detainees, after receiving them, in accordance with the Yemeni evidence and laws. He pointed out that the delay of handing over the Yemeni prisoners in Guantanamo is attributed some reasons, the most important on is that the American lawyers volunteering to defend the Yemeni prisoners in courts demand to prevent the American government not to hand over the prisoners to their countries.
Regarding the Yemeni citizen Ahmed Abdullah Ali whose way of death in Guantanamo a year and a half ago is suspected the Minister clarified that Yemen dispatched directives to its embassy in Washington at the same day of the announcement of his death to open investigation in the issue through independent committees and to send his body to Yemen.
The minister expressed that the Yemeni foreign ministry is not convinced over American justifications based on incompletion of investigations up until now. He added that the Yemeni foreign ministry is currently coordinating with lawyers for conducting independent investigation into the death before a court in the American District of Colombia in order to know if he died in suicide or was killed, adding that the Yemeni foreign ministry has not yet received a repot on the dead body anatomy.
On the other hand the Foreign Minister al-Qirbi explained that the Yemeni official stand concerning the events of Saada was based on that the Libyan and Iranian interference was not official by government parties in the two countries but rather by citizens there. He said Yemen has previously summoned its two ambassadors to the two countries for consultation due to sensitivity of receiving Houthis and expressed his hope for opening a new chapter in Yemen's relations with the two countries.